We don’t market through intermediaries, we market despite them," quipped one delegate at the February Routes to Market Association conference, Successful Marketing through Channels and Alliances.  All too often, suppliers find the process of going to market with partners, whether sell-through partners or influencers, wasteful and ineffective.

What emerged very clearly from the day was that better, brighter marketing development fund programmes do not work, unless the supplier had really thought through the underlying strategy.  This essential strategy spade-work is too often left out. 

So what do you need to do to achieve successful marketing?  The day presented several answers.  For the first time, the Routes to Market Association ran a separate alliance stream (see Why Alliances Fail, page 14).

Do the strategy spadework
Most suppliers run channels tactically, with the aim of hitting this quarter’s sales targets. This approach militates against long-term success, argued Guy Swarbrick, a director at VIA International.  

He said that often how companies work with intermediaries is based on an unspoken history, an accretion of past experiences. No one has sat down and thought the process through properly.  Swarbrick argued that it was therefore important to go back to basics. He mapped out how companies can build winning channel strategies starting at ground zero (see Building the right channel marketing strategy, facing).

Identify and leverage your strengths
When strategising, it is vital to remember your heritage and your current strengths, rather than simply looking to the future.  Andy Tallian, head of consultancy group MarketFrames, and formerly in charge of marketing at HP’s $20 billion consumer division, argued that often companies fail to do this: "They forget why they are in business. At HP we went through a period when we forgot how strong we were in printers. It took time for us to come up with a programme which allowed us to reassert that strength and to use it to win market share in adjoining product sectors."

Manage the go-to-market process
Tallian also argued that failure to effectively manage go-to-market processes scuppers many channel marketing initiatives.  This happens particularly when strategy has not been thought through: "Often channel marketing lapses into day-to-day tactical programmes.  Internally, people become myopic in their silos."

He says that usually 6 or 7 departments are involved in a successful channel push and, all too often, they operate independently.  "Planning, marketing communications, product marketing and channel marketing all have to be co-ordinated."  If they are not, then the supplier fails to achieve the full benefits of working with an extended business network. (See Win by Reconnecting, page 13).

Use major product launches to redefine yourself
Tallian went through a case study based on Big Bang, the simultaneous launch by HP of 15 printers and a range of other allied products, which saw HP massively increase sales and profitability and build its strength in areas such as digital cameras.

He argues that large product launches provide a unique opportunity to seize the strategic initiative and to gain mindshare with consumers and intermediaries.  Many suppliers ignore these opportunities.